That didn’t help.
He knew it.
Impossible, but… "Was my mom one of you?"
"Of course. Born and bred—"
"That can’t be." I knew my voice was hoarse with desperation. "She was with the CIA. She was American."
He smiled at me, but it wasn’t that tight one he’d been gracing me with since we’d met. It was sly.
Cunning.
"Was she?"
"Yes," I hissed. "She was American. Born and bred."
"As much as I regret it, she's dead and has been for a long time. My interest is in you, Star. You, not she, are the reason I brought you in here.
"I've watched you, cultivated you, seen you grow and blossom until you're the perfect vision sitting before me.
"You're a weapon. Honed and precise in a way that your mother could never be—"
"I don't believe you," I whispered, clinging to one solid truth: "Mom was American."
"Your mother was whatever I wanted her to be."
My nostrils flared as I jerked to my feet.
The desire to flee was strong, but the urge to know more was stronger.
I stood there, hovering in place, trying to decide what to do.
Was the truth that unpalatable that I couldn't withstand it?
After everything that had been done to me?
"There’s nowhere to run and there’s nowhere to hide that I can’t find you, Star Sullivan. There never has been, and there never will be."
Feeling invisible cuffs tighten around my wrists, shackles tying me in place, I clenched my hands into fists as I rasped, "You lured me here?"
"Naturally."
"What are your intentions?" Before he could answer, I tipped up my chin. "I was a sex slave before. I will never be that again."
"That was the CIA's desire, not mine. How do you think you were liberated? You think that was just pure luck? You don't think it was engineered." He pshawed as he got to his feet, moving to stand in front of me. "It is your past that makes you deadlier than your mother."
"Don't pretend to know her. If she was…" I couldn’t get the words out. "If she was who you think… then she was just a soldier."
Kuznetsov smiled at me again, but this time, it sent a cold bitter chill through my veins, one that was more devastating than the winter night outside. "That's where you're wrong, granddaughter."